The Cachapa: another work of God manifested in corn

With cheese, with Pernil, with guayanés, on the morning or after the party. Of all the ways and means cachapa is simply a divinity for Venezuelan people, is undoubtedly God talking to you through the meal, we leave you here the recipe.

Cachapa (Photo: Hoy Qué Hay)

How to make a Cachapa:
Ingredients (8 to 10 Cachapas)
4 cups of fresh corn kernels (*)
3 teaspoons of salt
¾ cup of sugar
¾ -1 cup of water (depending if the corn is more or less tender).
(* ) Some 6-8 large corncobs, about 3 cups alreay milled (The dough can be mixed with pre-cooked flour for Cachapas but fresh corncobs gives a special flavor to the dish that commercial flour can't).

Preparation:
Cut with a knife grains from the corncobs, without going very deep to avoid cutting the cob.
Beans are milled by a corn grinding mill not too tight. The dough should be a little thick and ordinary. In a large bowl mix that with salt, sugar and water. The mixture should have a thick consistency, but fluid enough so that when placed on the griddle be expanded by its own weight.
Is set to heat a griddle or skillet on the stove and once it gets hot over medium heat. The griddle is greased with oil absorbent paper each time you will make a cachapa and with a small spoon you pour into the griddle about ½ cup of the mixture, spreading it around with the spoon to form a pancake about 10 or 15 inches in diameter and ½ inch thick.

When bubbles form across the surface, flip with a spatula to cook the other side until golden. About 1 minute on each side. Served hot, stuffed with soft white cheese or yellow cheese and can be bathe with cream cheese.
They can be stored after cooling in the refrigerator for days. In this case can be heated to steam or fry 1-2 minutes per side in a little butter mixed with equal quantity of oil.

Bollos Pelones: A Refinement of Venezuela cuisine.

From cocina y vino we bring this excellent recipe for a traditional Venezuelan dish, Bollos Pelones:

 Buns Pelones (Photo : My - recipes ) 

 How to cook the Bollos Pelones:

 The recipe is to take corn dough between your hands and fill it in with a stew. It has become a typical Venezuelan dish still in the present various homes across the country, varying from state to state, meats that are based stews and spiced dough.

 Here is our proposal of Bollos Pelones:
 Ingredients:
 2 cups cornmeal
 1-½ cups of water
1 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons of onotado oil

 For the stew:

 500g ground beef
3 sweet peppers
2 clove of garlic
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion
 ½ cup tomato puree
1 teaspoon of cumin
Salt and black pepper

 For the Sauce:
 6 red tomatoes
½ Paprika
 1 onion
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic
4 sweet peppers
1-cup of chicken or beef or both
 Salt and pepper

 Preparation:

 The dough is prepared by placing water into a container, adding the salt, and flour gradually while kneading the dough. After the dough is done add the Onotado oil and continue kneading until it turns into a bright orange color.

 The stew is prepared by first heating the oil in a saucepan, add the onion and garlic and then add the chopped sweet peppers and finally the meat / chickien then let it brown. Include tomato puree, a touch of salt, pepper and cumin. Cover and leave on low flame for 20 minutes.

 The sauce is done by simply blending all dry ingredients, pour them into a pan with oil, you add a cup of broth and then let it rest on low heat for about 20 minutes or until sauce thickens, season. Let it rest until cold.

 The buns are made by taking a ball of dough the size of a fist slightly less, crushed in the hand, hollow and a spoonful of the stew is placed gently closed, leaving it bake for 10 minutes in boiling water, each bun.

 To serve, are arranged on a plate buns, topped with sauce and, if desired, decorate dropping over finely chopped cilantro or parsley.

The Cocuy an iconic drink of the Venezuelan gastronomy, part II

Continuing with Cocuy as a Venezuelan export product, such as has Tequila for Mexico making National Flag for the Mexican gastronomy. We also believe that this product, currently with a clandestine production, and / or craft with peccary infrastructure, has not had the necessary encouragement.

 All this has caused the digging of the holed in places with no weather conditions, reason that producers combine the care taken for any hint of rain during the baking, because it could delay and even " astonish " process, thus losing all the work. After baking the cocuy the leaves are broken off pilarlas or taken to a rudimentary press to extract all possible guarapo, then they place it in pipes or drums (special brass barrels with a capacity of about 220 liters). Each pipe or Cuba as told, id filled with juice or guarapo of some 20 to 30 heads of cocuy, depending on the size, then you add water: when the juice is pure cocuy of pena you do not need to add anything but this does not yield much liquor and is very expensive in man hours / work, so they usually add to it sugar or brown sugar and molasses (if pure sugar liquor), this to accelerate the fermentation process, and to make it last longer. Once you have the exact point of fermentation, most of the time it's done literally with" eyes a guess. This must seems like wine it goes from about 5-7 degrees of alcohol, then you are ready for the next step which is boiling it in a Ollon. The Ollon is a big metallic pot with two holes at the top of the Ollon. In the upper hole you poor the wine and a paddle that is used to stir the contents that are inside, preventing solids to settle and burned, as this will ruin the taste of the drink.

 The first liquid that is extracted can be up to 80 degrees of alcohol, and is called pringote, is widely used for medicinal purposes. In distillation the drink gradually reduces its degrees of alcohol. The following Cocuy from the pringote has a range of 75, 70, 65 degrees and thus degenerates gradually until it becomes a liquid with few degrees of alcohol called Aguaza. Depending on the degree that it’s given to the cocuy and according to the mixture the Cocuy will be from first, second or third class, as appropriate. The elders say that the best cocuy was 7 × 8 (56 º) and it was for men, because to drinking cocuy at this degree you must have a foolproof throat, compare to the best wiski that is just above the 40 degrees of alcohol.

 To achieve high quality it is necessary that the final product contain at least 60 % of pure Cocuy and 40% from another component such as water, brown sugar or sugar, a rule from the Association of Craft Producers of Cocuy who chairs the new producer of the ruble Foncho Zalazar, plans to formalize the Municipality of Urdaneta entity protected by law to regulate artisanal cocuy production in the state. The mos recognized popultaions producers of cocuy are :Bobare, Tocuyo , Quíbor and Siquisique in Lara state. However, the most prized of Venezuela cocuy is made in Pecaya a small town of Falcon State, where artisan produce 200,000 liters / year. This cocuy has reached such a level of quality that has earned the second designation of origin granted in this country after the Chuao cocoa.

 Considering that each the plant Agave Cocuy pays only a bottle per plant, that this plant is not cultivated but develop in the wilderness each issue takes about seven years to reach maturation state, the Venezuelan government has created the " Agave program " in order to promote the use of this species in a sustainable manner. In the same order of ideas, the Government of Falcon state has declared it a “cultural heritage product of the region."
 "Putting the country we are, in the place we want." 

Editor : Antonio Pestana '

 apestana@iconosdevenezuela.com

 contacto@ecoalianza.com